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Adidas
adidas AG ( ) is a German multinational corporation that designs and manufactures sports clothing and accessories based in Herzogenaurach, Bavaria, Germany. It is the holding company for the Adidas Group, which consists of the Reebok sportswear company, TaylorMade-Adidas golf company (including Ashworth), Rockport, and 9.1% of FC Bayern Munich. Besides sports footwear, Adidas also produces other products such as bags, shirts, watches, eyewear, and other sports- and clothing-related goods. Adidas is the largest sportswear manufacturer in Germany and Europe and the second biggest sportswear manufacturer in the world. Adidas was founded in 1948 by Adolf Dassler, following the split of Gebrüder Dassler Schuhfabrik between him and his older brother Rudolf. Rudolf later established Puma, which was the early rival of Adidas. Registered in 1949, Adidas and Puma are both currently based in Herzogenaurach, Germany. The company's clothing and shoe designs typically feature three parallel bars, and the same motif is incorporated into Adidas's current official logo. The company revenue for 2012 was listed at €34.48 billion. History After a period of trouble following the death of Adolf Dassler's son Horst Dassler in 1987, the company was bought in 1989 by French industrialist Bernard Tapie, for ₣1.6 billion (now €243.9 million), which Tapie borrowed. Tapie was at the time a famous specialist of rescuing bankrupt companies, an expertise on which he built his fortune. Tapie decided to move production offshore to Asia. He also hired Madonna for promotion. He sent, from Christchurch, New Zealand, a shoe sales representative to Germany and met Adolf Dassler's descendants (Amelia Randall Dassler and Bella Beck Dassler) and was sent back with a few items to promote the company there. In 1992, unable to pay the loan interest, Tapie mandated the Crédit Lyonnais bank to sell Adidas, and the bank subsequently converted the outstanding debt owed into equity of the enterprise, which was unusual as per the prevalent French banking practice. The state-owned bank had tried to get Tapie out of dire financial straits as a personal favour to Tapie, it is reported, because Tapie was Minister of Urban Affairs (ministre de la Ville) in the French government at the time. In February 1993, Crédit Lyonnais sold Adidas to Robert Louis-Dreyfus, a friend of Bernard Tapie for a much higher amount of money than what Tapie owed, 4.485 billion (€683.514 million) francs rather than 2.85 billion (€434.479 million). They also purposely bankrupted Tapie's company that owned Adidas, because only the company had the right to sue them. Robert Louis-Dreyfus became the new CEO of the company. He was also the president of Olympique de Marseille, a team Tapie had owned until 1993. Tapie filed for personal bankruptcy in 1994. He was the object of several lawsuits, notably related to match fixing at the football club. During 1997, he served 6 months of an 18-month prison sentence in La Santé prison in Paris. In 1994, combined with FIFA Youth Group, SOS Children's Villages became the main beneficiary. In 1997, Adidas AG acquired the Salomon Group who specialized in ski wear, and its official corporate name was changed to Adidas-Salomon AG. With this acquisition Adidas also acquired the Taylormade Golf company and Maxfli, which allowed them to compete with Nike Golf. In 1998, Adidas sued the NCAA over their rules limiting the size and number of commercial logos on team uniforms and clothing. Adidas withdrew the suit, and the two groups established guidelines as to what three-stripe designs would be considered uses of the Adidas trademark. In 2003, Adidas filed a lawsuit in a British court challenging Fitness World Trading's use of a two-stripe motif similar to Adidas's three stripes. The court ruled that despite the simplicity of the mark, Fitness World 's use was infringing because the public could establish a link between that use and Adidas's mark. In September 2004, top English fashion designer Stella McCartney launched a joint-venture line with Adidas, establishing a long-term partnership with the corporation. This line is a sports performance collection for women called "Adidas by Stella McCartney", and it has been critically acclaimed. Also in 2005, on 3 May, Adidas told the public that they sold their partner company Salomon Group for €485m to Amer Sports of Finland. In August 2005, Adidas declared its intention to buy British rival Reebok for $3.8 billion (US$). This takeover was completed with partnership in January 2006 and meant that the company would have business sales closer to those of Nike in North America. The acquisition of Reebok would also allow Adidas to compete with Nike worldwide as the number two athletic shoemaker in the world. Adidas has global corporate headquarters in Germany, and many other business locations around the world such as Portland OR, Hong Kong, Toronto, Taiwan, England, Japan, Australia, and Spain. Mainly sold in the U.S., Adidas makes lots of assets from these countries and is expanding to more overseas countries. In 2005, Adidas introduced the Adidas 1, the first ever production shoe to use a microprocessor. Dubbed by the company "The World's First Intelligent Shoe", it features a microprocessor capable of performing 5 million calculations per second that automatically adjusts the shoe's level of cushioning to suit its environment. The shoe requires a small, user-replaceable battery that lasts for approximately 100 hours of running. On 25 November 2005, Adidas released a new version of the Adidas 1 with an increased range of cushioning, allowing the shoe to become softer or firmer, and a new motor with 153 percent more torque. On 11 April 2006, Adidas announced an 11-year deal to become the official NBA clothing provider. They will make NBA, NBDL, and WNBA jerseys and products as well as team-coloured versions of the "Superstar" basketball shoe. This deal (worth over $400 million) takes the place of the previous 10-year Reebok deal that was put in place in 2001. On 3 November 2011, Adidas announced that it would acquire outdoor action sport performance brand Five Ten through a share purchase agreement. The total purchase price was $25 million USD in cash at closing. By the end of 2012, Adidas is reporting the highest revenues ever and Chief Executive Herbert Hainer expresses optimism for the year ahead. Products Running Adidas currently manufactures several running shoes, including the adiNEO shoes, which is the lightest especially the flats version, before being replaced by Adidas Stan Smith and Superstar shoes since January 2016. Adidas Golf sells clothing, footwear, and accessories for men, women, and youth. Men's equipment includes footwear, shirts, shorts, pants, outerwear, base layer and eyewear. Women's equipment includes footwear, shirts, shorts, skirts, pants, outerwear, base layers, and eyewear. Youth equipment includes both boys and girls footwear, clothing, and eyewear. Lacrosse In 2007, Adidas announced the future production of lacrosse equipment, and will sponsor the Adidas National Lacrosse Classic in July 2008 for the top 600 high school underclassmen lacrosse players in the United States. Rugby Adidas makes rugby balls and other rugby gear. They are the current kit and ball supplier to the New Zealand All Blacks, Irish Munster Rugby, the British and Irish Lions, the French National Team Les Bleus, the Italian national rugby team and the South African Stormers and Western Province rugby union teams among others. Adidas is also the New Zealand Rugby Union clothing sponsor and supplies clothing to all Super Rugby franchises, a selection of domestic teams and national referees. Adidas are also the official match ball supplier to the Heineken Cup. They are the jersey manufacturers of the Gold Coast Titans Rugby League club in the Australasian National Rugby League. Marketing Adidas, like other sports brands, is believed to engender high consumer brand loyalty. Brand loyalty towards Adidas, Nike, Inc., Puma AG and several other sportswear brands was examined in a recent study. The study found consumers did not exhibit unduly high loyalty towards such brands. During the mid to late 1990s, Adidas divided the brand into three main groups with each a separate focus: Adidas Performance was designed to maintain their devotion to the athlete; Adidas Originals was designed to focus on fashion and life-style; and Style Essentials, with the main group within this one being Y-3. "Adidas is all in" is the current global marketing strategy for Adidas. The slogan aims to tie all brands and labels together, presenting a unified image to consumers interested in sports, fashion, street, music and pop culture. "Impossible is Nothing" was the previous mainstream marketing slogan for Adidas. This campaign was developed by 180/TBWA based in Amsterdam but also with significant work being done by TBWA\Chiat\Day in San Francisco – particularly for its basketball campaign "Believe in Five".TBWA\Chiat\Day commissioned Zane Peach to produce images for 2007 international ad campaign. See also * List of swimwear brands * Reebok (now owned by Adidas) * Puma SE, formed by Rudolf Dassler, brother of Adolf Dassler External links * * Adidas brand website Category:Adidas Category:Adidas brands Category:Clothing retailers of Germany Category:Clothing brands of Germany Category:Companies established in 1924 Category:Companies based in Bavaria Category:German brands Category:Herzogenaurach Category:Multinational companies headquartered in Germany Category:Athletic shoe brands Category:Shoe companies of Germany Category:Sporting goods manufacturers of Germany Category:Sportswear brands Category:Swimwear manufacturers Category:Companies listed on the Pink Sheets Category:1980s fashion Category:1990s fashion Category:2000s fashion Category:2010s fashion